got three at home," he answered. "I really don't think I should like to adopt another."
"I'm not in the market for adoption," said Ben, smiling. "I want to get into some store to learn the business."
"Have you any particular fancy for the druggist's business?" asked the apothecary.
"No, sir, I can't say that I have."
"I never took much, but enough to know that I don't like it."
"Then I am afraid you wouldn't do for experiment clerk."
"What's that?"
"Oh, it his duty to try all the medicines, to make sure there are no wrong ingredients in them – poison, for instance."
"I am afraid I shouldn't like that," said Ben.
"You don't know till you've tried. Here's a pill now. Suppose you take that, and tell me how you like it."
The druggist extended to Ben a nauseous-looking pill, nearly as large as a bullet. He had made it extra large, for Ben's special case.
"No, I thank you," said Ben, with a contortion of the face; "I know I wouldn't do for experiment clerk. Don't you need any other clerk? Couldn't I learn to mix medicines?"
"Well, you see, there would be danger at first – to the customers, I mean. You might poison somebody, and then I would be liable for damages. If you will get somebody to sign a bond, forfeiting ten thousand dollars in any such case, I might consider your application."
"I don't think I could find any such person," said Ben.
"Then I am afraid I can't employ you. You are quite sure you don't want to be experiment clerk?"
"And swallow your medicines? I guess not. Good morning."
"Good morning. If you want any pills, you will know where to come."
"I would rather go where they make 'em smaller," said Ben.
Ben and the druggist both laughed, and the former left the shop.
"That's the second situation I have been offered today," soliloquized our hero. "They were not very desirable, either one of them, to be sure, but it shows there's an opening for me somewhere."
The next was a cigar store.
"I might as well go in," thought Ben.
A little hump-backed man was behind the counter.
"Want to hire a boy?" asked Ben.
"Are you the boy?"
"Yes."
"What can you do?"
"I am willing to do anything."
The hunchback grinned.
"Then perhaps I can give you a situation. Will you work for three dollars a week?"
Ben reflected.
"That will do, with strict economy," he thought, "till the factory takes me on again."
"I'll come for a few weeks, at that rate," he said.
"But perhaps you won't like your duties," said the hunchback, grinning in a curious manner.
"What would be my duties?"
"I should paint you red, and have you stand outside the door, as an
Indian," was the answer.
Ben didn't relish the joke.
"You'd better take that position yourself," he retorted. "Nobody'd know the difference."
"Get out!" roared the cigar dealer angrily.
Ben left at once.
"That's the third situation I've been offered," he said: "I'd give 'em all three for a decent one."
Chapter III
On the way home Ben met James Watson.
"How are you, James?" he said. "What have you been doing this morning?"
James gaped.
"The fact is," he said, "I have only just got up and had my breakfast."
"I don't see how you can lie abed so late."
"Oh, I can do it just as easy. I guess I was born sleepy."
"You look so," retorted Bed, with a laugh.
"What have you been doing?" inquired James lazily.
"I've been about in search of a place."
"You have!" said James, with sudden interest. "Did you find any?"
"Yes, I found three."
"What!" exclaimed James, in surprise.
"I was offered three places."
"Which did you take?"
"I didn't take any; I didn't like them."
"You are too particular, Ben. Just tell me where they are; I'll accept one."
"All right!" said Ben. "I'll give you all the information you require.
The first is a dry-goods store."
"I'd like to be in a dry-goods store. What's the pay?"
"Fifty cents a week for the first year."
"Faugh!" ejaculated James, disgusted. "What's the second place?"
"Experiment clerk at the druggist's."
"Good pay?"
"I don't know."
"What are the duties?"
"To taste all the medicines, to make sure there's no poison in them. The druggist offered me a pill, to begin with, about as large as my head."
"I wouldn't take it for a hundred dollars a week. What's the third?"
"In a cigar store. The pay is three dollars a week."
"That's better than nothing. Where is it? I guess I'll take it."
"I don't think you'll like the duties," said Ben, laughing.
"I wouldn't mind selling cigars."
"That isn't what you're wanted for. You are to be painted red, and stand outside as an Indian."
"That's the worst yet. I don't wonder you didn't take any of those chances. What are you going to do this afternoon?"
"Try and find some more places."
"Leave that till tomorrow. You know there's going to be a big picnic at Lovell's Grounds, with
